Past Events

Penobscot Marine Museum’s winter exhibit Underfoot: Footwear, Hooked Rugs, In the Cellar and Below Decks opens on Friday, December 6th from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm with a holiday party including Christmas gingerbread houses, a book signing with five Maine authors, and the town of Searsport’s Holiday Tree Lighting. The Tree Lighting will take place at 4:00 pm on the museum’s crescent and the party is in Penobscot Marine Museum’s Main Street Gallery and Shop on Route One in Searsport.

Five Maine writers of mystery, adventure, and children’s books: Kelly Brooks-Bay, Darcy Scott, John Cobb, Bob Branco and Angela Nickerson, will all be on hand to discuss and sign their books during this holiday party. Christmas gingerbread houses made by local children and adults, including chefs at Anglers and other local restaurants, will be on display. Come and vote for your favorite confection. “People’s Choice” awards will be given to the best gingerbread house made by a child and by an adult.

Left: Victorian Shoes, Right: Hooked Rug

The museum’s winter exhibit Underfoot: Footwear, Hooked Rugs, In the Cellar and Below Decks explores what is on your feet and what is under your feet. Antique shoes from around the world, Maine hooked rugs, and a re-created nineteenth century ship’s cabin will all be a part of Penobscot Marine Museum’s exhibit. The museum will even open up its own cellar to show the world of food storage before refrigeration. Check our website for winter talks and workshops.

Thursday, October 3, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
“How To Keep Warm and Stay Green”, a talk (rescheduled from the winter) by Matthew O’Malia, architect and partner of GO Logic. G O Logic designed the Belfast Area Co-housing Community and TerraHaus, a dormitory at Unity College. Their many awards include the Citation for Excellence in Architecture from AIA New England. They provide a comprehensive problem-solving approach to the design and construction of quality, sustainable, zero-energy buildings. Matthew will discuss the concepts and details of the highly-insulated passive solar house building. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. To buy tickets call 207-548-2529.

Series tickets

September

Thursday, September 5, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Filmmaker David Conover will show and discuss his hour-long film documentary Wreck of the Portland. Known as the “Titanic of New England,” the loss of the SS Portland is one of the greatest maritime disasters to occur off the Northeast coast of the United States. On Nov. 26, 1898, the passenger ship, SS Portland, on route from Boston to Portland, was caught in a fierce blizzard. Struggling through the night with raging seas and 90-mile-per hour winds, the Portland finally sank with all 190 passengers and crew on board. Little of the shipwreck and few victims were ever recovered, and the exact location of the tragedy was a mystery. During the summer of 2002, using a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV), the wreck of the Portland was found, 104 years after her disappearance. This film was produced for the Science Channel series “Science of the Deep.” David Conover’s company is Compass Light Productions in Camden, Maine. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets over the phone at 207-548-2529.

Monday, September 9, 7:00 pm
Garden History Lecture Series
“Seed Saving Primer, and Genetic Engineering and Food Security”
People have saved and propagated seed from plants in their gardens and from wild plants for over ten thousand years. Since the beginning of agriculture people traded or bartered seed. Selling seed commercially began at the beginning of the 19th Century and by the 1850s many commercial horticulture operations sold seeds. Today, much of the world still saves seed as a necessity. Especially in developing countries, saving seed is an essential part of farming. Diana will offer practical seed saving tips for the home gardener, including information on which plants from which seed may be saved, as well as harvesting and storage advice. Learn how the progressive technology of GMO threatens the ages-old practice of saving seed, how to protect yourself from the hidden health dangers of genetically modified food and how to protect your right to grow life-giving, nutritious food in your own garden. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, September 12, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Buzz Scott, founder of OceansWide, will talk about “Historic Antarctic Exploration – Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen”. Raised on Matinicus Island, Maine, Buzz fished commercially for 17 years in the Gulf of Maine. He spent four years as a Navy Seabee and another seven years with the United States Antarctic Program as a marine projects coordinator, sailing on scientific research ships around Antarctica. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, August 1, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
“Titanic: What Really Happened” a talk by MMA Professor Capt. Charles Weeks. Capt. Weeks is one of the authors of Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal, which Amazon says, “provides fascinating insights into the ship herself, the American and British inquiries, the passengers and crew, the fateful journey and ice warnings received, the damage and sinking, protocol and process of rescue, the circumstances in connection with the SS Californian and SS Mount Temple, and the aftermath and ramifications around the world”. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online at or call 207-548-2529.

Monday, August 5, 7:00 pm
Garden History Lecture Series
“Colonial Herbs for meate and medicine, and Shaker Influence”
Diana Chapin will present a collection of slides and will talk about how early Americans used herbs for food (referred to in Colonial days as “meate”) and healing, fragrance and dye. American Shakers were revolutionary herbalists whose lives revolved around plants for food, medicine, and income. Take a walk through history with Diana and learn about what Shakers believed, how they lived and be introduced to some of their most treasured plants. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online at or call 207-548-2529.

Wednesday, August 7, 11:00 am AND 1:00 pm
Children’s Living History Performance
Join us for a living history portrayal of the heroine Abbie Burgess Grant by 7th grader Melanie Rosenberg. As Abbie Burgess, Melanie will share the harrowing story of tending the Matinicus Rock Light for nearly a month while her father was away from the island and what it was like to become a well-known heroine. Melanie will also share some discoveries she made during research which might surprise people who know Abbie’s story only through children’s stories. After the performance, Melanie will answer audience questions as both in and out of character. Melanie is part of a living history performance group located in Colorado. Free with admission to Penobscot Marine Museum.

Thursday, August 8, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
University of Maine marine archaeologist Warren Riess will speak about his new discoveries and his exciting work as a national expert in marine archaeology of the New England and mid-Atlantic regions. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

Wednesday, August 14, 11:00 am
Children’s Workshop: Watercolor Journaling
Lucinda Hathaway, author of Takashi’s Voyage: The Wreck of the Sindia, leads this workshop. The children will learn a quick sketch technique with waterproof pens and application of watercolor paints. Materials for use that day will be provided. Free with PMM admission. At PMM’s Peapod, Church Street, Searsport. For more information call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, August 15, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Tim Garrold, a Searsport native and US Naval War College professor, tells hair-raising stories of rescues at sea, including the rescue of the crew from the burning SS KRISTA MARINOVIK in the Mediterranean Sea in 1982, the rescue of a private sailing vessel that had pitch-poled and demasted in a storm off Cape Hatteras in 1985, the search for a fighter jet lost at sea from USS AMERICA during Carrier Battle Group work-ups for Operation DESERT STORM in 1990, and the rescue of the crew of an SH-60B helicopter that crashed in the Persian Gulf during Operation DESERT STORM in 1991. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

Saturday, August 17, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Heritage Craft Demonstration
If you missed this demonstration in July, come see how pottery is made! Asha Fenn will be at Penobscot Marine Museum demonstrating wheel thrown and hand-built pottery techniques. Asha Fenn studied pottery at Manassus Clay in Virginia and is a full-time potter working in Stockton Springs, Maine.

Thursday, August 22, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Author and former Downeast editor Andrew Vietze talks about his book Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Cannibalism. The wreck of the NOTTINGHAM GALLEY on Boon Island and the resultant rumors of insurance fraud, mutiny, treason, and cannibalism was one of the most sensational stories of the early eighteenth century. Captain Deane offered one version of the events that led them to be shipwrecked on notorious Boon Island, the barren rock off the coast of Maine; his crew proposed another. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, August 29, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Talk and book signing with Mark J. Gabrielson. He will discuss his book Deer Isle’s Undefeated America’s Cup Crews: Humble Heroes From a Downeast Island. The America’s Cup yacht races were, and still are, the most prestigious and expensive international sporting events in the world. With a history extending back over 160 years, the America’s Cup reached its height in the late 1800s – the era of J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Sir Thomas Lipton. Until that time, American yachts in the competition had been crewed by professional sailors from Europe. But in the winter of 1895, emissaries from the New York Yacht Club traveled more than 450 miles by train and steamboat to remote Deer Isle, Maine to recruit an all-Yankee crew. That small fishing town sent nearly forty of its best sailors to New York to sail Defender, and in a difficult and controversial series they defeated the best Great Britain’s aristocrats could muster. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets over the phone at 207-548-2529.

July

Monday, July 1, 7:00 pm
Garden History Lecture Series
Heirloom Gardening is for the Birds! (Bees and Butterflies, too!)
Diana Chapin of The Heirloom Garden of Maine will present a collection of slides that highlight some of the most colorful and fragrant plants that attract birds, butterflies and bees to the garden. She’ll discuss the lifecycle of a butterfly and how a gardener may select specific plants that offer shelter, foliage and nectar for the insects in various stages of their lifecycle. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529 to buy tickets.

Tuesday, July 2, 7:00 pmArt of Katahdin, illustrated talk and book signing by author David Little
Celebrating our greatest natural treasure, this book tells the fascinating story of America’s love affair with Maine’s highest mountain. David Little spent seven years writing this amazing history of the lure Mount Katahdin held in the 19th and 20th centuries and still holds today for America’s artists. At PMM’s Main Street Gallery/Admissions Center, 40 East Main Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets over the phone at 207-548-2529.

Saturday, July 6, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Pen Bay Day!
Free museum admission to all. Join the party! See the sea-going Remotely Operated Vehicle from OceansWide, watch Revolutionary War re-enactors fire their muskets and cook over an open fire, try your hand at weaving and spinning, hear great maritime music by Downeast From Away, eat delicious food from The Good Kettle and ice cream from Stone Fox Creamery, watch the flares, play games with your children, and much more! Our annual summer party is a blast. Admission Free. At Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport, Maine. For more information call 207-548-2529

Tuesday, July 9, 8:15 am to 12:15 pm
Lighthouse Tour of Penobscot Bay by Boat!
Join us on this exciting PMM fundraiser and see eight lighthouses, including Eagle Island, in Penobscot Bay on the Camden Harbor Cruises boats with Captain Garth Wells. Captain Wells will provide commentary on the lighthouses and other features of the Bay with PMM Curator Cipperly Good adding some historical context. Coffee and muffins on board. Leave Camden dock at 8:15, return at 12:15. Now through May 31, tickets are $100 per person for members, $115 non-members. June 1 through July 5, tickets are $115 for members and $130 for non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529 to buy tickets.

Wednesday, July 10, 11:00 am
Children’s Story Hour and Book Signing
Celebrated children’s illustrator and author Chris Van Dusen will read his beloved children’s book The Circus Ship. This exciting story tells of the burning of the ship ROYAL TAR off the coast of Vinalhaven, and the rescue of the circus animals it was carrying. Book signing afterwards. Admission Free. At PMM’s Peapod, Church Street, Searsport. For more information call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, July 11, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture SeriesHow To Keep Warm and Stay Green
Talk (rescheduled from the winter) by Matthew O’Malia, architect and partner of GO Logic. G O Logic designed the Belfast Area Co-housing Community and TerraHaus, a dormitory at Unity College. Their many awards include the Citation for Excellence in Architecture from AIA New England. They provide a comprehensive problem-solving approach to the design and construction of quality, sustainable, zero-energy buildings. Matthew will discuss the concepts and details of the highly-insulated passive solar house building. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

Saturday, July 13, 10:00 am
Maine Antique Power Association Display and Demonstration and Lobsterboat Races
Power Up in Searsport: Rev your engines at the Penobscot Marine Museum! The Maine Antique Power Association will get the engines rolling on the Museum’s front lawn at 10:00 am and keep them going all afternoon. Down at the Town Dock, the Searsport Lobsterboat Races start off at 10 am. The Searsport Car Show will take place at Mosman Park during the day. Park at the Museum and enjoy a day of steam, diesel and gasoline-powered engines in Searsport. Free. For more information call 207-548-2529.

Wednesday, July 17, 11:00 am
Children’s Story Hour and Book Signing
Learn about the history of lighthouses, their purpose, songs and stories with Angeli Perrow, author of Lighthouse Dog to the Rescue and other stories of shipwrecks and lighthouses. Admission Free with PMM admission. At PMM’s Peapod, Church Street, Searsport. For more information call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, July 18, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Harry Gratwick, whose many books on Maine include Stories From the Maine Coast: Skippers, Ships and Storms, shares highlights from research on his current book on the shipwrecks of Penobscot Bay. Learn about the Revolutionary War shipwrecks of the ill-fated Penobscot Expedition, as well as exciting stories of more modern shipwrecks. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529 to buy tickets.

Thursday, July 25, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Penobscot Bay Capt. Skip Strong will speak about the harrowing rescue described in his book In Peril: A Daring Decision, a Captain’s Resolve, and the Salvage that Made History. Strong, captain of an oil tanker carrying 10 million gallons of crude, was trying to outrun tropical storm Gordon when he picked up a distress call off the Florida coast in the early hours of November 15, 1994. Strong decided to attempt a rescue, although doing so put his own crew and cargo, not to mention hundreds of miles of Florida coast, at risk of a catastrophic oil spill. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

June

Monday, June 3, 7:00 pm
Garden History Lecture Series
“Early American Garden Design: Popular Landscaping in Colonial and Victorian America”
An illustrated talk by Diana Chapin of The Heirloom Garden of Maine on how gardening has changed over the course of American history. Her slides depict popular landscape design techniques of the Colonial and Victorian Eras and will help anyone with an old home or an interest in heirloom gardening to develop their landscape using traditional design techniques At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

June 4, 9 and 16
Schooner HERITAGE Fundraiser!
“The best vacation you will ever have.” We are happy to offer Penobscot Marine Museum members a 10% discount on the Schooner HERITAGE this summer! If you book the Schooner HERITAGE for a multi-day sail on June 4th, 9th or 16th, you will receive the 10% discount, and the Museum will receive 5% of your ticket price as a donation. For more information please call 800-648-4544 or go to www.schoonerheritage.com.

Saturday, June 8, 2:00 pm
Children’s Story Hour and book signing
Connie and Peter Roop, authors of Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie, will tell us the story of Abbie Burgess who manned the light on Matinicus Island for four weeks while her father the lighthouse keeper was stuck on shore during a storm. Join us afterwards for a book signing. Free with PMM Admission. At PMM’s Peapod, Church Street, Searsport. For more information call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, June 13, 11:00 am
Children’s Story Hour
Hear exciting stories of life in a Maine lighthouse, told by lighthouse keeper Ernie DeRaps and his daughter who grew up in lighthouses! Admission Free. At PMM’s Peapod, Church Street, Searsport. For more information call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, June 13, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series
Ernie DeRaps, lighthouse keeper at four Maine lighthouses, will present a slide show illustrating the life of a lighthouse keeper. He and his wife wrote a book about lighthouse-keeping and light housekeeping. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529.

Friday, June 28, 7:00 pm
Thursday Night Lecture Series (on Friday this week only)
An illustrated talk by bestselling author Michael Tougias about his exciting new book A Storm Too Soon: A True Story of Disaster, Survival and Incredible Rescue. Hear his vivid account of the disaster: seventy-foot waves battering a torn life raft with three men on it 250 miles out to sea; and the amazing rescue by four brave Coast Guardsmen who battle hurricane-force winds in their Jayhawk helicopter in a race to save them. Michael Tougias will sign books after the talk. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport. Tickets in advance $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members. Buy tickets online or call 207-548-2529 to buy tickets.

Saturday, May 11, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Volunteer Day at Penobscot Marine Museum!
Help us get the Museum ready to open! We need you and your friends, your rake, your shovel, your paintbrush, your huddled masses yearning to clean, and weed and paint. At Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport, Maine. For more information call 207-548-2529

Friday, May 24, 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Opening Reception: For Those In Peril: Shipwrecks, Memorials, and Rescues
Join us for an opening party to celebrate Penobscot Marine Museum’s 2013 season, and our exhibit: For Those In Peril. This exhibit explores the shipwrecks and near misses; the perfect storms and sudden squalls; those lost at sea and the families left behind; and the brave lifesavers and brilliant marine equipment innovators. Through the Museum’s collection of marine art, portraits, photographs, lifesaving equipment, original manuscripts and logbooks, small watercraft, models, and navigational instruments, the stories of “those in peril” will come alive in the summer of 2013. Admission Free. At PMM’s Museum Gallery, 40 East Main Street, Searsport. For more information call 207-548-2529.

Thursday, May 30, 4:00 to 7:00 pm
Wine Tasting Fundraiser at Good Kettle!
Sample delicious wines, eat delicious hors d’oeuvres and stock your wine cellar for the summer. You will receive ten percent discount on all cases purchased or ordered during the tasting. Ten percent on all wine sold will be donated to the Penobscot Marine Museum. At The Good Kettle, Route One, Stockton Springs, Maine. Call 207-567-2035 for more information.

For generations the resources of fish, wind and tide played key roles in Mainers’ lives. The Industrial and Technological Revolutions dramatically changed our use of these resources. What is the current state of our fisheries? Is there a new vision for Maine’s working waterfront? Can Maine lead the way in wind and tidal power development? This year we examine Maine’s history and future with regards to our resources of fish, wind and tide.

Schedule:

8:15-9 am

Registration

9-9:45 am

Historic Tide Mills of Maine: What is a tide mill? Who built the 200 tide mills in North America and what role did they play in our economic history? Historian Bud Warren explains tide mill technology, tells the history of tide mills along the Maine coast, and discusses contemporary tide mill activity.
Bud Warren, co-founder of Tide Mill Institute and marine historian

Gulf of Maine Fisheries: An Historic Overview: Exactly why, how and when were our fishing stocks depleted? Karen Alexander and Bill Leavenworth study the historic fisheries of the Gulf of Maine and will speak on the effect of fossil fuels and other twentieth century technologies on the fisheries.
William Leavenworth, Senior Research Fellow, Environmental Conservation Department, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Karen Alexander, Historic Fisheries Scientist, Univ. of New Hampshire

12:15-1 pm Lunchtime talk

Sail Making The Old Fashioned Way: Eben Wilson, lobsterman and sail maker, will talk about traditional sail making techniques which have remained unchanged for centuries, and the important role working sailing vessels played in Maine’s history.
Eben Wilson, Apprentice Sailmaker at Nathaniel Wilson Sailmaker Inc.

Maine’s Wind Power Development: Maine has been identified as a potential major wind energy supplier for the Northeast corridor from both on-shore and off-shore wind turbines. Our panel will discuss how universities and industry professionals are collaborating to study, plan and build wind energy in Maine.
Larry Parent, Assistant Director, Advanced Structures and Composites Center, University of Maine, Orono
Paul Williamson, Director and Industry Coordinator of the Maine Ocean & Wind Industry Initiative

3:30-5pm

Beer tasting: from Marshall Wharf Brewing Company in Belfast and Networking Time.